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I remember being a kid and sitting in class learning all the important things in life. You know, DARE, Smokey the Bear etc. I remember learning about recycling and its impact on the environment, but I don’t remember any animated characters that would relate to it. Although my memories are somewhat vague about what we were taught, I still know that recycling is important and plays a significant role in the health of our environment.
My father’s good friend was an engineer at the local garbage dump, so on one of our field trips we visited his workplace. I remember my trip seeing the enormous machinery screening municipal solid waste and being disgusted with the smell of it all. During our visit, the importance of proper disposal of recyclable materials such as paper, plastic, glass etc. was emphasized so that they would not end up in the landfill.
Luckily for us many years ago, someone devised a process to recycle some materials so they would not be buried in the ground, leaving a terrifying scent for anyone who is surprisingly far away from the scent. For the sake of this post, I will focus on the 10 step process for recycling paper, and in the next post I will cover the process of recycling other recyclable materials.
Please see the steps below for the waste paper recycling process:
Step 1: Sorting Paper Waste – Removal of all paper that contains contaminants such as food, plastic, metal, and other junk can be done by hand. Many companies will easily sort their documents thanks to tools such as those created by MSS, Inc ..
Step 2: Collection and Transport – Your paper trash can be taken to your local recycling center, trash can, or a recycling center can pick it up.
Step 3: Paper Storage – Paper mills then store the paper until it is needed for the next phase of the process. This paper is then transferred to large conveyors to the next stage.
Step 4: Re-Grinding and Sieving – The pulper then chops the recovered paper into small pieces while heating the mixture to break it down into fibers. The fibers are then screened to make sure there are no more debris.
Step 5: Cleaning the Paper – To further remove the waste paper, a process called a spinner is performed. This process will remove heavier, more difficult-to-remove items.
Step 6: Decolor – Use water and air bubbles to remove ink and other adhesive materials from the paper.
Step 7: Refinement, Bleaching and Color Removal – The recycled fibers are separated into individual fibers for further preparation. If the fibers contain color, they will be dye-free, and if the recycled paper is to be white, it will be bleached with hydrogen peroxide.
Step 8: Paper production – the pulp is finally mixed with water and chemicals until it is placed on a sieve which drains the pulp from the water. After draining, the pulp is in a sheet and passes through heated metal rollers that dry the paper.
So the next time you plan to just throw that paper away rather than recycle it, think about the process and the unpleasant smell that people have to smell when someone decides not to recycle waste paper.